RollingPresidential

I work on contingency. I also think the legal profession is a soulless husk consisting of some of the most narcissistic, self-important blowhards anywhere.

I guess I don't work in the "business" world (I'm a trial attorney) but the mythology that surrounds a McCombs degree is funny to me.

If NIL is finite, are bags infinite? How can they keep doing this?

Nahlin But neither is roster management. Transfer portal recruiting is a year-long process compressed into six weeks, it’s not a year-long process compressed into half a week. That’s the key takeaway if you’re frustrated by lack of activity, as measured by offers, from the Texas staff. Offers are not a good way to measure activity. I assure you Texas coaches and staffers are hyper-focused on those in the portal while still waiting to see who else will enter. From here we’re likely to see a slow trickle of players throughout the 45-day window with the trickle increasing in volume as bowl games are played. After bowl games is when players return home before the spring semester and talk their situation over with parents, former coaches, mentors, etc. I will admit to expecting a few more big names in the portal to this point, so I myself might have a minor sense of frustration over the lack of great options currently in the portal, but I’m also not naive to the fact Portal Kombat is taking place outside of the public eye. One national power, for example, is playing even more loose and fast with the rules than others to try and get players to jump into the portal. If you want to make the case Texas is being too slow with offers, Arizona wide receiver Dorian Singer is probably the best example at your disposal. He was productive and he makes plays outside of his expected catch radius. But looking at production and highlights does not equate to an evaluation, especially in the portal era where everything has to be evaluated, including why the player entered the portal in the first place. Only using Singer as an example and not saying anything definitive of him: Is he leaving for NIL money? Is that his own decision or did a school put him up to it? If so, what school? Is he even truly on the open market or posturing with a destination already secured? Singer seems an obvious take to me, but you still don’t short the evaluation process and there’s a lot more to evaluate than meets the eye. Speaking of, we know of some potential surprises that await. If we know there are some potential surprises, that tells us there could be others we have no idea about. Those positions include WR, DB, DL, an Edge. But there could be more potential options than we currently know of at each position. For the most part, the best players on big boards across the country are not yet in the portal, and since we’re less than three days in, a school like Texas isn’t going to T-shirt cannon offers into the nosebleeds. Texas has needs to fill, but not like, e.g., Texas A&M, where a player like Tony Grimes who is a pass for Texas is a take for A&M. I can see the headlines now. Another thing to consider, if you’re Texas, would you even want your portal offers made public? Frankly I was surprised Wake Forest cornerback Gavin Holmes made his public. Texas can’t stop players from taking their new offer to Twitter, but it could and should encourage them to keep them private. If you don’t understand why, think on it for a couple of minutes. There are two potential valid reasons. Texas is being selective and that requires patience. They’re not close to the point where a solid player like Oklahoma State linebacker Mason Cobb is in the crosshairs. People might be wise to recall the Isaiah Neyor recruitment. Neyor liked Texas but Texas moved on to Mario Williams before having to reverse course after Williams chose USC. UT was able to flip Neyor from UT-lite because the coaches knew they had latitude. Trust the coaches, or don’t, but at least let it play out. Texas is going to be much better for this 45-day bloc. Emphasis on length of time. Cook The transfer portal has only been fully open now for just over 48 hours. More and more players are bound to enter and join the almost 2200 from the FBS and FCS who are actively seeking a new place to play. [Get FOUR MONTHS of Inside Texas Plus for $1!] Even within that limited window, several transfer portal prospects who it would make sense for Steve Sarkisian and the Texas Longhorns to pursue have entered the database at positions of need like wide receiver, linebacker, EDGE, and defensive back. Some are from the Power Five level, while others are from the Group of Five ranks. Plenty of transfer portal prospects could see Texas become a suitor, but here are six from the FBS that make the most sense. Dorian Singer, WR, Arizona This wouldn’t be the first time that a Longhorn coaching staff has interacted with Singer. Just before Sarkisian’s hire in January of 2021, the previous Texas staff under Tom Herman pursued the Phoenix (Ariz.) Pinnacle product. Other recruiting networks had a host of burnt orange predictions come in for the St. Paul, Minn. native, but the coaching switch took place and Singer ended up staying in the desert. He burst onto the scene this year with his 1100+ yard season, and had six different games with 90 or more receiving yards. Sarkisian recently mentioned the need for Texas to shore up its third wide receiver spot. Adding the All-Pac-12 second-teamer to Brennan Marion’s room would easily accomplish that mission. Gavin Holmes, DB, Wake Forest During his redshirt freshman year in 2021, Holmes helped the Demon Deacons reach the ACC title game and win the Gator Bowl. The New Orleans (La.) Archbishop Rummel grad followed that up with a strong sophomore season. Holmes had 23 tackles and nine pass breakups for Wake Forest in 2022. According to Pro Football Focus, receivers he covered were targeted 43 times. Only 20 of those targets were caught for 324 total yards against the 5-foot-11, 175-pounder. To date, Holmes is the only transfer portal prospect to have been offered by Texas. Ryan O’Keefe, WR, Central Florida Coming out of Round Rock (Texas), O’Keefe had one P5 offer from Boston College. He went the G5 route and played at UCF, where in four years he had 184 catches for 2002 yards and 15 touchdowns, plus 39 carries for 496 yards and one score. This past year for the Knights, O’Keefe caught 73 passes for 725 yards and five touchdowns while adding 23 carries for 222 yards. While he was 53 yards short of 1000 scrimmage yards this year, he eclipsed the mark in 2021 with 100 touches for 1086 yards and eight scores. A speedster who ran a 10.5 in the 2019 UIL 6A State 100m finals to finish fourth behind Matthew Boling and former Longhorn Tyler Owens, O’Keefe will be one of the more sought-after receivers in the transfer portal. Grant Dubose, WR, Charlotte In the last two seasons with the 49ers, the 6-foot-2, 200-pounder has 126 catches for 1684 yards and 15 touchdowns. In 2022, he had 64 catches for 792 yards and nine scores playing alongside Charlotte’s leading receiver, Elijah Spencer. Dubose had an overall offensive grade of 70.3 during the 2022 season, according to Pro Football Focus. Stephen Herron Jr., EDGE, Stanford Herron started all 12 games at EDGE for the Cardinal in 2022, adding to his six starts in the previous two seasons. He had 37 tackles including 6.5 TFL and 5.5 sacks along with two forced fumbles for the Cardinal. His most productive game was versus USC when he had five tackles including 1.5 TFL and 0.5 sacks. Herron is listed at 6-foot-3, 237 pounds and would project to Buck in Longhorn defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski’s system. He had offers from all over the country as a recruit, including from Indiana, Kentucky, Louisville, and Ohio State from in his region. The Longhorns also offered, but the class of 2019 prospect elected to head to The Farm instead. Levani Damuni, LB, Stanford Another 12-game starter at linebacker for Stanford, the 6-foot-2, 242-pounder from Providence (Utah) Ridgeline recorded 207 total tackles, 9.0 TFL, 3.0 sacks, two interceptions, two forced fumbles, and a fumble recovery in this 31 game career. During the 2022 season, Damuni was the leading tackler for the Cardinal with 76, which was 25 more than the second place finisher in Jonathan McGill. He also added 3.5 TFL, 1.0 sack, one interception, and two forced fumbles. Damuni was originally a member of Stanford’s class of 2017, but went on a two-year LDS mission in New Zealand.

Aggie On3 Mod is quitting (dude who made that long post about how everything was fine on IT). Given that TexAgs is effectively an arm of the AD, seems tough to compete against that.

Is that account Figurelli?

I like the guy that says that Durkin's defense relies on LBs like Chavis's relies on lockdown corners. As opposed to defenses that don't need those things.

If they try and fill out their class with high schoolers at this stage, it's gonna be like a transition class with all the late commitments.

So where's this badass safety and badass WR?

What a way for them to backdoor into Rueben Owens. Here's hoping he has as many red flags as @closetojumping says he does.

Just don't transfer to any Texas opponents, please.

A&M is gonna take like 20 mercenary transfers who are gonna sign up for one. last. job.

Excited for them to hire Mullen and run QB Power with Connor Weigman. Might get the flu a few more times doing that.

His throwing motion has always looked really fucked up.

I thought Marshall was like Marcel Brooks level bad. Does it matter that he "wants" to stay? Is A&M that much of a clusterfuck administratively that they'd let it happen?

What is Bouie alleged to have done?

(Stolen from Aggie thread on IT) A few Thurday notes 7,040 Views | 87 Replies | Last: 4 min ago by AgsMyDude Liucci 11:51p, 12/1/22 Staff AG I'm going to hit these very rapid fire and will talk more about some of this tomorrow: -There are some names that I think you guys may be off on when it comes to this coaching search. Contrary to what many on here and elsewhere tried to run with, Brian Hartline was never under consideration nor did every receive a phone call from the Aggies. Before you trot out the tired "but they don't have to 'call' them! The agents do that!" line, keep in mind that Jimbo has been conversing directly with coaches throughout the week. And, no, Arkansas' Kendall Briles wasn't on that list, either. -It's my understanding that Tom Herman was under consideration as one of the 'handful' of candidates but wasn't a primary option due mainly to the fact that he was likely to land a head coaching job - either Arizona State or FAU (which he took today). Former Florida head coach Dan Mullen is also someone who I've heard is under consideration, along with at least three or four others. As far as fits go, I'm still very high on Baylor's Jeff Grimes but that's just my personal opinion. I'm also not nearly as bullish as some 'insiders' and message board firestarters are that North Carolina's Phil Longo will ultimately be the guy though there is enough of a connection there for him to draw legitimate A&M interest. -Two things I have heard that, in my opinion, should strike you guys as very interesting are the fact Jimbo has been making it clear with any and every prospective candidate that he fully intends to pass along play calling duties to his hand-picked hire. I've also heard that a couple of candidates are guys whose systems are a lot more wide open than I would have originally expected. That's a great sign regardless of where Jimbo and the Ags land because it means he's open to just about anything and is truly exploring all options. Fisher has also been very hands on when it comes to this hire so everything I've heard this week I've considered very positive and quite encouraging. Jimbo and the Aggies are giving themselves a chance to get this thing right. -As far as Aggies considering the NFL, I'm not getting the best vibes right now on where Jaylon Jones is at on the stay-or-go spectrum. He's being told by some that he's a 'late first rounder,' which would be very difficult to pass up. However, most NFL types I talk to - including everything from scouts to coaches to assistant GMs to head coaches - view Jones as a Round 3 type right now. This one will depend on who Jones believes. Ainias Smith and Antonio Johnson? Still expecting both to enter the draft and Devon Achane staying still feels like a longshot but I think he's likely to have a hell of an NIL/insurance policy combo that will give him the very real option of staying. -How about the portal? Behind the scenes a ton of progress has been made on the NIL front and Jimbo's end-of-season player meetings have gone about as well as possible. I'd be lying if I said every single important player is 100% all-in with returning in the Maroon & White next fall but the guys I'm talking about are still more likely to stay than leave and the overwhelming number of returning starters and key young players are set on returning in 2023. So far, none of the departures have come as any sort of surprise, including defensive end Tunmise Adeleye. The former national top-100 signee opened the season as a starter and the Ags would have loved to have had him back but he wasn't available as a true freshman and was injured two games in this fall and missed most of the season while some younger DEs established themselves while #30 was sidelined. It's a tough situation that underclassmen around college football are facing this week. In sticking with that theme, don't be surprised to see the Ags end up approaching double-digits in the portal before all is said and done. While folks are waiting to make a big deal about whoever is on the way out of College Station, what they might want to pay closer attention to will be who is coming in. Things on that front should be interesting next weekend, when the Aggies are expected to host several potential portallers. -Finally, expect to see the Ags lose a staffer from outside of their 10 full-time assistants to Deon Sanders' staff at Colorado (yes, you read that correctly, Coach Prime is heading to Boulder).

Getting Hill really means losing Burrell?

Boo. They did go 5-7 but I was hoping for Kyle Allen + Kyler Murray transferring within days of each other level off-season meltdown.

Did not know they referred to Perroni as "Peps"

College Station size talk not going away.

Was he the one who played a lot?

Overton as in Lebbeus Overton? What'd he do?

Duvernay looked like a running back and had the best hands on the team immediately.

Just figured I'd share, seems to be causing a mini-meltdown in the Aggie thread on IT. Folks there are panicking that things aren't as bad as we thought at A&M. Time will tell!